Gerrit Noordzij: Bibliography

Towards a bibliography

Robin Kinross, November 2002

Gerrit Noordzij’s theory of letters was launched publicly in 1970, with his article ‘Broken scripts and the classification of typefaces’. Despite the ostensible subject of that piece, his idea of ‘translation / expansion’ and ‘cursive / interupted’ as the governing schema of letters is presented there, ‘in nuce’. Noordzij’s main books on letters and type are The stroke of the pen (1982) and De streek (1985, reissued 1991). Otherwise, the essential Noordzij texts on typography and letters are the bulletin Letterletter (1984-96), produced for ATypI, and the compendium of his ‘views about everything’: De handen van de zeven zusters (2000).
This is, of course, not a complete bibliography. For example, some newspaper articles by GN have been consciously omitted. Additions and corrections are welcomed (please write to me at rk@hyphenpress.co.uk). Many thanks to Peter Enneson and Mathieu Lommen for additions and corrections to the present draft.

The shape of the stroke, Raster imaging and digital typography 2: papers from the second RIDT meeting, held in Boston, October 14-16, 1991 New York, 1991, pp. 34-42. Robert A. Morris and Jacques André (ed.). [ PDF ]